Welcome to 'OZ' - The 'Other' Side of the Rainbow!! Some posts may be seen as offensive. Posting is at 10AM and 2PM CST daily. Six days of posts are on the main page. The archives have more. You can forward posts by clicking on the envelope at the bottom of the post. Enjoy your stay! *** If you need to contact me, or have a copyright issue, please use the "Contact The Wizard" form on the right side of 'OZ'. Original source and author is cited and credited in each post where possible. ***

***Disclaimer***

*****Disclaimer: The Wizard of 'OZ' makes no money at all from 'OZ' - The 'Other' Side of the Rainbow. 'OZ' is 100 % ad-free*****

The caped crusader's evolution has left him—and us—completely joyless.​

I've never seen a more unremarkable Batman (or Bruce Wayne) than the one on display in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Ben Affleck, who might be as humorless as they come, manages to make the beloved hero a boring, annoying drip of a man, and the Batsuit, which looks more like a tank than an outfit, transforms the vigilante into a terrifying machine. I suppose that's the point here—can this Batman be trusted? Can any hero with superhuman powers? Batman v Superman reduces our chances of having any fun by making the heroes the bad guys: two emotionally fragile white guys who bicker with each other instead of using their supposed intellect to figure out that they're actually on the same side.

Are demons real? Though evil spirits possessing the body of a hapless human victim seems like the stuff of science fiction, the possibility of being possessed by demons is, in fact, a common belief held by religions around the world. Even the Christian Bible alludes to demonic possession more than thirty times, including several cases of Jesus "casting out demons" from people. Most religions offer prayers, spells, or incantations that are used to remove these invading spirits via exorcism rituals.

As hard as it may be to believe, countless accounts by victims and witnesses dating back to ancient times are hard to ignore. Let's explore ten cases of truly scary and, by all accounts, real demonic possession.

Note: For most of these cases, there are no photographs for us to share with you here. We have used images from movies and other sources to illustrate this post.

1. Clara Germana Cele

In 1906, Clara Germana Cele was a Christian student at St. Michael's Mission in Natal, South Africa. For some reason, Cele prayed and made a pact with Satan when she was sixteen years-old, and just days later, Cele was overtaken by strange impulses. She was repulsed by religious artifacts like crucifixes, she could speak and understand several languages of which she had no previous knowledge, and she became clairvoyant regarding the thoughts and histories of the people around her.

Nuns who attended to Cele reported that she produced horrible, animalistic sounds; she also levitated up to five feet in the air. Eventually, two priests were brought in to perform an exorcism. Cele tried to strangle one of the priests with his stole, and over one hundred and seventy people witnessed her levitating as the priests read Scripture. Over the course of two days, the rites of exorcism successfully drove the dark spirits from her body. (Source | Photo)

As LGBT History Month begins [ was February ], historian and author Sebastian Buckle looks at ‘gay’ – and how homosexuality went from an act to a way of life in Britain.

On July 27, 1967 the Sexual Offences Act received royal assent, signalling that sex between men was no longer a criminal offence – but only under certain circumstances.

The new law only applied in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland would have to wait until 1980 and 1982 respectively); it did not include any man working in the armed forces or the merchant navy; and it only applied to men over the age of 21, in private, with no more than two people present.

Female homosexuality was not decriminalised at the same time simply because it had never been a criminal offence.

One of the key Parliamentarians responsible for the new law, Lord Arran, issued a stark warning to those men he had helped emancipate:

“I ask those who have, as it were, been in bondage and for whom the prison doors are now open to show their thanks by comporting themselves quietly and with dignity. This is no occasion for jubilation; certainly not for celebration. Any form of ostentatious behaviour; now or in the future any form of public flaunting, would be utterly distasteful and would, I believe, make the sponsors of the Bill regret that they have done what they have done.”

But despite this, the act instead helped legitimise and offer further impetus to changes that were already underfoot, changes which would have a huge impact on the way modern Britain understood homosexuality in the decades ahead.

Pre-war Britain defined people based on signifiers including gender, class, religion, and ethnicity.

Sex was a private matter which rarely featured in public discourse. Men and women were of course having sex with members of their same sex – as they have been for as long as humanity has existed – but they did so in secret.

Medical professionals may have described them as homosexual, as might have some more well-read individuals, but this remained a medical category.

Others may have called them queer, but this was a pejorative term to label a minority of people. To define men and women by their sexual preference simply did not exist.

Your identity – how you thought of yourself and how others thought about you –could not be based on sexuality in a society where sex was rarely spoken about.

But the Second World War was the catalyst that helped change this. The war displaced families, sent young soldiers across the country (and the world), and gave women new roles in the workplace for the first time.

All while the impending threat of total war hung over a frightened population. People became exposed to new ideas and ways of living, and ended the war fundamentally changed by it, ready to build a new kind of society which they had fought so hard for.

The Gay Liberation Front – born in the Stonewall riots of 1969 in New York – emerged in Britain in 1970 and began a political and social campaign which at its heart rested on the premise that gay people should live open lives, free from persecution in what they hoped would be a fundamentally changed society.

Magazines had already begun to use the American term “gay”, which deliberately rejected medicalised terminology in favour of a word which by definition meant happy. Indeed, the rights movements of the twentieth century relied on invoking an identity politics which defined a class of people who sought freedom.

In the decades where sex and gender became topics fit for public discussion, the sixties and seventies saw sexuality enter the lexicon.

In doing so newspapers and magazines began writing about this new type of “gay” person, while men and women began living openly “gay” lives for the first time.

Slowly, people who were sexually attracted to members of their own sex started to define themselves – and be defined by others – as gay. This was more than just a label of sexual preference; crucially, it became a label of identity.

It defined who you were as the foremost category of identity. Gender, class, ethnicity all continued to matter, of course, but now sexuality too, became a signifier of who you were as a person.

The Gay Liberation Front never managed to change society in the way that it hoped, but instead left a legacy in the form of new ways of understanding people. We now live in a world where individuals are categorised by their sexuality. Calling someone gay does not just mean saying that they are sexually attracted to members of their same sex.

It means giving them an identity which invokes a plethora of meanings that at its heart rests on a way of life distinct from heterosexuality. Although these meanings seem constant, they are in fact always changing and dependent upon an individual’s exposure to ideas drawn from the media, the law, and the social lives of those around us.

Without creating this gay identity it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to fight for the legal rights which now offer almost parity with heterosexuality in the UK.

But while those new labels of identity certainly helped liberate generations of men and women who were able to define themselves and their feelings in a way that they and other people understood, they also helped demonise those same groups. HIV/AIDS, Section 28, and promiscuity were just some of the negative associations with being gay in Britain throughout the last few decades.

But society now appears to be on a precipice where, for many, sexuality no longer exclusively defines who you are. In this new world of multiply identities sexuality is only one of many ways to define yourself, and calling yourself gay increasingly carries less and less meaning beyond the gender of your sexual partner.

In this new world the way we understand and use the word gay may shift on its head, losing the meaning and identity conferred on it from the 1970s onwards. But it is only by understanding the origins of the labels we so often use to define ourselves and others that we can begin to think about how we really want to be defined, and how we want to define others.

Sebastian Buckle is the author of The Way Out: A History of Homosexuality in Modern Britain.

LOS ANGELES -- Earl Hamner Jr., the versatile and prolific writer who drew upon his Depression-era upbringing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to create one of television's most beloved family shows, "The Waltons," has died. He was 92.

Hamner died in Los Angeles and had recently been battling pneumonia, said Ray Castro Jr., a friend of Hamner's who produced a documentary, "Earl Hamner Storyteller," about the writer. Castro said he learned about Hamner's death from the writer's daughter, Caroline. A Facebook post by Hamner's son, Scott, stated his father died surrounded by family at Cedars Sinai Hospital while John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" was playing.

Although best remembered for "The Waltons," which aired for nine seasons and won more than a dozen Emmys, that show barely scratched the surface of Hamner's literary accomplishments.

He was a bestselling novelist ("Spencer's Mountain"), the author of eight episodes of the classic 1960s TV show "The Twilight Zone" and, as a screenwriter, adapted the popular children's tale "Charlotte's Web," into a hit 2006 film. He also created the popular, long-running TV drama "Falcon Crest" and wrote for such other TV shows as "Wagon Train," "Gentle Ben" and "The Wild Thornberrys."

Castro said Hamner remained busy in recent years, and had recently sold a play. "He was a great Southern gentleman, a great friend, a great father," Castro said. "He was my mentor. America has truly lost a great icon."

Hamner published nearly a dozen books and wrote hundreds of TV scripts. He continued to write into his 90s, once noting proudly that the same month he turned 90 he had two stories published in separate collections.

One, "Come Down to the Store, Minerva," appeared in the horror anthology "Shadow Masters: An Anthology From the Horror Zone" and was inspired by an idea Hamner said he had stashed away decades before when he was writing for "The Twilight Zone." The other, on fishing, was published in "Gray's Sporting Journal."

"The Twilight Zone" episodes Hamner did finish included several of the best the classic TV series aired. Among them were "The Hunt," in which a recently deceased backwoodsman is saved by his beloved hunting dog from accidentally wandering into Hell. Another, "Ring-a-Ding Girl," tells the story of a young Hollywood movie star who returns to her hometown hours before her death and tricks family and friends into staying away from the site where her plane will crash.

Hamner and the show's creator, Rod Serling, had been friends since their college days, and when Serling launched the show in 1959 he invited Hamner to submit scripts. Hamner said he drew inspiration for most of them from folk tales he had heard as a child.

"Looking back," he once said, "I realize that if I made any unique contribution to the series, it was to introduce the American folklore element into it."

That element was something he would draw on repeatedly over the next 50 years, first in books like "The Homecoming" and "Fifty Roads To Town" and later in television's "The Walton's."

Like John Boy (played by Richard Thomas), the show's character he modeled on himself, Hamner was born in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, on July 10, 1923. Also like John Boy, he was the eldest of eight children and named after his father.

It was there that Earl Henry Hamner Jr. grew up in such modest circumstances that his family owned few books other than the Bible and had no telephone. It wasn't until a high school field trip to the World's Fair in New York City in 1939, Hamner once said, that he actually learned how to use a phone. Until that trip, he said, he had never been more than 40 miles from home.

Hollywood legend Patty Duke -- who won an Oscar for playing Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" -- has died. She was 69.

Duke passed away at 1:20 AM Tuesday morning. She died from sepsis due to a ruptured intestine. Duke's son, Sean Astin, said the family is "relieved" because Duke was in a lot of pain and the process took a long time to play out.

By Jake Brannon, Wimp.com
We hear a lot of animal rescue stories these days, but none quite as wild as this one. While walking to work one day, an 18-year-old named Hamdan Shibli discovered three kittens on the side of a dirt road. While some would have ignored these poor cats to continue their commute, Hamdan took the time to stop and care for these little creatures.

The kittens looked weak and their mother was nowhere in sight, so Hamdan relocated them to a nearby bush where they'd be safe. Shortly after, Hamdan was uploading pictures of his encounter online when he had a shocking revelation: those tiny kittens he'd helped to safety were no mere housecats ... they were jungle cats!

Jungle cats are a type of large cat native to Asia, and while they are not currently threatened, they have been experiencing declines in population. Hamdan rushed back to the bush where he left them, hoping that they were still alive so he could help them. Check out the images below to see the full story of Hamdan and the jungle cats.

Hamdan Shibli, an 18-year-old living in Israel, found three kittens on the side of a dirt road. He looked around but could not locate their mother, so he decided to move them out of the road to prevent further harm.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

All PYSANKY are created the same way, the only thing that differs is the design on each egg. All designs are an accumulation of ancient symbols arranged in different patterns, and differing color schemes.

These are The Wizard's pysanka

1 pysanka, 2 pysanky, 3 pysanky, four

The name PYSANKA comes from the Ukrainian word pysaty which means "to write" since the designs are written on the egg. The ending letter "a" or "y" refers to the number of decorated eggs. Pysanka means one egg, and pysanky is plural. Originally the eggs were kept full to keep the mystical powers intact. But in modern days of changing air pressure and shipping, some empty the eggs to ensure a safe delivery with no mess or smell. The designs are the most important for the well-wishing gifts. The pysanka on the left still has the yolk inside and rattles if you shake it. The other two were emptied.

You can enjoy your pysanky for an entire life time. Unless broken, the eggs will last forever.

Friday, March 25, 2016

If you're like me, you just can't spend enough time reading in public restrooms. And there's always some guy standing in front of the next chapter on the wall by the urinal. And he seldom wants to be a dear and jot down the phone number. I kid. Comic relief.

But it is nice the computer age brings funny restroom graffiti direct to our screens, the modern bathroom monitors. Of course, we must do without the ambient flushes and floating cigarette butts.

This site is clogged with hundreds of actual messages noted in the Mens and Ladies, Guys and Dolls, Buoys and Gulls. We're told "They serve as (informal) forums for politics, pop culture, humor, and so forth." Please note: Explicit content and they're out of paper towels.

Bugs: [to Marvin] Eh, pardon me, Doc, but could you rent me a U-drive-'em flying saucer? I gotta get back to the Earth. Marvin the Martian: The Earth? Oh, the Earth will be gone in just a few seconds. Bugs: [walking away] Oh, well, don't bother, then. No point in wasting money on a flying saucer when the Earth's not gonna...
[Bugs stops suddenly with a shock and comes back to Marvin, who is trying to light the fuse of the space modulator] Bugs: Eh, pardon me again, Doc, but, uh, just what did you mean by that crack about the Earth being gone? Marvin the Martian: Oh, I'm going to blow it up; it obstructs my view of Venus. Bugs: It does? That's a shame.
[Bugs gets a terrified look and craftily defuses the modulator and takes it away]

[Marvin notices that his space modulator is missing and he discovers Bugs running off with it] Marvin the Martian: The illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator! That creature has stolen the space modulator!

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ Shandling died from a massive heart attack, with no prior warning whatsoever.

Comedian Garry Shandling died at an L.A. area hospital on Thursday ... TMZ has learned.

The 66-year-old star was not suffering from any illness ... as far as we know ... so, it appears this was sudden. A source connected to Shandling says he was healthy and speaking to people on Thursday morning.

Our source says there was a 911 call from "The Larry Sanders Show" star's home, and he was transported to the hospital. We're told Shandling was alive when he arrived at the hospital.

Last weekend, Shandling was hanging with friends Kathy Griffin and Bob Odenkirk ... who also co-starred with Garry on 'Larry Sanders.'

One day a while back, a man, his heart heavy with grief, was walking in the woods. As he thought about his life this day, he knew many things were not right. He thought about those who had lied about him back when he had a job. His thoughts turned to those who had stolen his things and cheated him. He remembered family who had passed on. His mind turned to the illness he had, that no one could cure. His very soul was filled with anger, resentment, and frustration. Standing there this day, searching for answers he could not find, knowing all else had failed him, he knelt at the base of an old oak tree to seek the one he knew would always be there. And with tears in his eyes, he prayed:

'Lord- You have done wonderful things for me in this life. You have told me to do many things for you, and I happily obeyed. Today, you have told me to forgive. I am sad, Lord, because I cannot. I don't know how. It is not fair Lord, I didn't deserve these wrongs that were done against me and I shouldn't have to forgive. As perfect as your way is Lord, this one thing I cannot do, for I don't know how to forgive. My anger is so deep Lord, I fear I may not hear you, but I pray you teach me to do the one thing I cannot do: Teach me to forgive.'As he knelt there in the quiet shade of that old oak tree, he felt something fall onto his shoulder. He opened his eyes. Out of the corner of one eye, he saw something red on his shirt. He could not turn to see what it was because where the oak tree had been was a large square piece of wood in the ground. He raised his head and saw two feet held to the wood with a large spike through them. He raised his head more, and tears came to his eyes as he saw Jesus hanging on a cross. He saw spikes in His hands, a gash in His side, a torn and battered body, deep thorns sunk into His head. Finally he saw the suffering and pain on His precious face. As their eyes met, the man's tears turned to sobbing, and Jesus began to speak.

'Have you ever told a lie?' He asked? The man answered - 'Yes, Lord..' 'Have you ever been given too much change and kept it?' The man answered - 'Yes, Lord.' And the man sobbed more and more. 'Have you ever taken something from work that wasn't yours?' Jesus asked? And the man answered, 'Yes, Lord.' 'Have you ever sworn, using my Father's name in vain?' The man, crying now, answered - 'Yes, Lord.' As Jesus asked many more times, 'Have you ever'?

The man's crying became uncontrollable, for he could only answer - 'Yes, Lord'. Then Jesus turned His head from one side to the other, and the man felt something fall on his other shoulder He looked and saw that it was the blood of Jesus. When he looked back up, his eyes met those of Jesus, and there was a look of love the man had never seen or known before. Jesus said, 'I didn't deserve this either, but I forgive you.' It may be hard to see how you're going to get through something, but when you look back in life, you realize how true this statement is.

Read the following line slowly and let it sink in. If God brings you to it - He will bring you through it.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.

Whenever a system becomes completely defined, some damn fool discovers something which either abolishes the system or expands it beyond recognition.

Technology is dominated by those who manage what they do not understand.

If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

The opulence of the front office decor varies inversely with the fundamental solvency of the firm.

The attention span of a computer is only as long as it electrical cord.

An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.

Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you.

Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.

All great discoveries are made by mistake.

Always draw your curves, then plot your reading.

Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.

All's well that ends.

A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost.

The first myth of management is that it exists.

A failure will not appear till a unit has passed final inspection.

New systems generate new problems.

To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.

We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything.

Any given program, when running, is obsolete.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men working 20 years make.

The faster a computer is, the faster it will reach a crashed state.

Nothing motivates a man more than to see his boss putting in an honest day's work.

Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book.

The primary function of the design engineer is to make things difficult for the fabricator and impossible for the serviceman.

To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest and cost the most.

After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.

Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which are still under development.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.

If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number.

Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable.

Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.Give all orders verbally.

Never write anything down that might go into a "Pearl Harbor File."Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables the organism will do as it damn well pleases.

If you can't understand it, it is intuitively obvious.The more cordial the buyer's secretary, the greater the odds that the competition already has the order.

In designing any type of construction, no overall dimension can be totaled correctly after 4:30 p.m. On Friday. The correct total will become self-evident at 8:15 a.m. On Monday.

Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.

All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door.

The only perfect science is hind-sight.Work smarder and not harder and be careful of yor speling.

If it's not in the computer, it doesn't exist.

If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.When all else fails, read the instructions.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.

Everything that goes up must come down.Any instrument when dropped will roll into the least accessible corner.Any simple theory will be worded in the most complicated way.

Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want to use it.The degree of technical competence is inversely proportional to the level of management.

In celebration of the mirth it caused I thought I’d share it with you all. Aren’t I kind ? If you’re on a random joke list then you might have seen it before, but the oldies are always the best (unless you’re lucky enough to pull some young chicken) and we say share and share alike (unless its an STD).

So, here are 100 reasons to be gay. How many can you own up to ?
Click here.

Note from The Wizard: I never said that you would love anything I post, for that matter, if you don't like it, start your own blog! =) Please send me comments. I know you visit. Tell me what you think.... Good :-) or Bad :-( ... The Wiz can take it!

Loyal 'OZ' Followers

Feedblitz Subscribe

Follow 'OZ' by Email

The time for change is now.

About The Wizard...

I was born September 12, 1962 in St. Boniface, MB Canada. I live in Saskatoon, SK. I have one child, a son, of whom I am incredibly proud. I attended Royal school in Charleswood and after a couple of years at St. Paul's High School, I graduated from Shaftesbury High. I attended Red River Community College in Winnipeg and received a certificate in Business Administration, with a Major in Marketing and Management. I attended the University of Manitoba, earning multiple certifications in LAN Administration and industry credentials from Novell, (CNA); Microsoft, (MCP); and CompTia, (A+). February 25, 2002 was an important turning point in my life and I was re-born.

You REALLY Curious?

Find the truth at 'OZ'

All I really need to know...

I learned from The Wizard of OZ

'OZ' - The 'Other' Side of the Rainbow

....There's no place like ~~~~~127.0.0.1~~~~~Click Above To Go To Top

-

Dwell not on the past. Use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind. Nothing really matters except what you do now in this instant of time. From this moment onward you can be an entirely different person, filled with love and understanding, ready with an outstretched hand, uplifted and positive in every thought and deed. --Eileen Caddy